I don't justify non-action, Guest. I'm appalled by it. Do you assume that attempting to understand the nature of the problem in the Sudan insead of, pardon the cliche, seeing it only in black and white, constitutes ignoring it or apologizing for it? You're cracked. Why do you think Dubya's war has gone so terribly wrong in Iraq? Because he and his pals didn't understand a thing about what they were doing. And they apparently don't care to begin to even take a look at the Sudan, let alone understand the conflict.

This is the kind of thing Bush should have paid attention to regarding Iraq:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May2004/El-Amine0518.htm

The Shia Rise Up
by Rami El-Amine
www.dissidentvoice.org
May 18, 2004
First Published in Left Turn


"What is striking is how much has changed in a week ­ a week. No one can talk about the Sunni Triangle anymore. No one can seriously talk about Sunni-Shia fragmentation or civil war. The occupation cannot talk about small bands of resistance. Now it is a popular rebellion and it has spread."

-- Wamid Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University

It's still too early to assess the impact of the April Iraqi uprising against the US occupation but one thing is for sure, things will never be the same again in Babylon. The tenacious resistance that the mostly Sunni fighters put up in Fallujah — more than 600 Iraqis (mostly women and children) and around 60 US soldiers were killed in the first week alone — rightly became the rallying cry of the rebellion. But Fallujah has been bearing the brunt of the occupation from day one.

What was different about this uprising was that large numbers of Shia rose up against the occupation forces. Suddenly the US and its allies were no longer just facing small pockets of armed resistance, concentrated mostly in the "Sunni triangle" northwest of Baghdad, but a major rebellion that killed more than 83 US soldiers in the first two weeks and took control of a number of major cities. US-trained Iraqi police units not only refused to put down the rebellion but in some places joined it. A battalion of Iraqi Civil Defense Forces refused to go to Fallujah "to fight Iraqis."

Go online for the rest of it.

It's long, Guest, so take your time reading it. Then consider what such a stupid mess Bush can make in the Sudan if he doesn't understand the issues. The U.S. always can wield influence in disasters like this, but I don't want to leave it to Bush to go for the knee-jerk reaction of choosing sides instead of looking at it globally. My remark about oil was right on. If there wasn't oil, Bush and Cheney wouldn't care. If there's oil but corrupt individuals in the Sudan have it all sewed up, then Bush doesn't care. Why do you think the U.S. has such poor relations with Mexico, all things considered? It's because there is enough corruption in Mexico to absorb all of the oil money there and the U.S. can't get it's hands on it. If things were different, they'd be our best pals. It has been that way for a long time, through many administrations. This one is just good at making bad situations a lot worse very quickly.

I don't expect you to "get it," Guest. You're too busy finding ways to misread people's words and intentions.

SRS